370 EULOGY ON PROFESSOR ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE. 



partially adopted, on account of the restrictions of the enactment of Con- 

 gress, by which provision was to be made for certain specified objects. 

 He strenuously opposed the contemplated expenditure of a most dispro- 

 portionate sum in the erection and maintenance of a costly edifice; but 

 failing to prevent this, he introduced the resolution adopted by the 

 board as a compromise, whereby the mischief which he could not wholly 

 avert might at least be lessened. This resolution provided that the 

 time of the erection of the building should be extended over several years, 

 while the fund appropriated for the purpose, being in the mean time 

 invested in a safe and productive manner, would serve in some degree 

 to counterbalance the effect of the great and unnecessary outlay which 

 had been resolved on. It would be difficult for the secretary, however 

 unwilling to intrude anything personal on this occasion, to forbear men- 

 tioning that it was entirely due to the persuasive influence of the pro- 

 fessor that he was induced, almost against his own better judgment, to 

 leave the quiet pursuit of science and the congenial employment of 

 college instruction to assume the laborious and responsible duties of the 

 office to which, through the partiality of friendship, he had been called. 

 Nor would it be possible for him to abstain from acknowledging with 

 heart-felt emotion that he was from first to last supported and sus- 

 tained in his difficult position by the fraternal sympathy, the pru- 

 dent counsel, and the unwavering friendship of the lamented deceased. 



His demeanor in the board was quiet and unobtrusive, and his opinions 

 sought no support in elaborated or premeditated argument ; but when a 

 topic likely to lead to difficulty in discussion was introduced, he seldom 

 failed, with that admirable tact for which he was always noted, to dis- 

 pose of it by some suggestion so judicious and appropriate as to secure 

 ready acquiescence and harmonious action. The loss of such a man in 

 the councils of the Institution, when we consider the characteristics 

 which it has been our aim to portray, must, indeed, be regarded as little 

 less than irreparable. 



As a vice-president of the United States Sanitary Commission his 

 influence was felt in selecting proper agents, and suggesting efficient 

 means for collecting and distributing the liberal contributions offered 

 for ameliorating the condition of our soldiers during the war. But the 

 services which he rendered the Government during the recent struggle 

 were not confined to this agency, or to the immediate operations of the 

 Coast Survey. He was called into consultations to discuss plans of 

 attack on the part of the Navy, and for its cooperation with the Army. 

 He acted also as a member of a commission to which various projects, 

 professing to improve the art of war, were referred, and in this capacity 

 it is not too much to say that his judicious counsel contributed to save 

 the Government millions of dollars by preventing the adoption of plausi- 

 ble though impracticable propositions from which nothing but failure 

 and loss could have resulted. 



One of the last acts of his life was an exemplification of the devoted 



